Being a pretty healthy fellow I've never used a disabled parking 
spot until this week. I just had a minor knee surgery, shortly followed by a dentist appointment. So driving to the dentist, I did something I'd not done before. I parked in the parking space just at the bottom of a half-flight of stairs (not a real disabled spot, but just close to the stairs), and struggled up them directly into the office. When I was done there, they asked if I took the elevator up. No, I said, I took the stairs. So the nice receptionist guided me to the elevator and bid me farewell.
The elevator spits me out on the ground floor, but in a lobby emptying on the other side of the building. Calculating my options, I decided walking around the small office building on the flat would be easier than taking the elevator back up and descending the stairs on the other side. So I hobble across the lot, around the building and down the sidewalk... Which then ends in a concrete wall between this lot and the one with my car. I hobble across that and a small patch of landscaping, then hop a short wall, traverse another sidewalk and enter the target lot via the driveway as a car would, then scamper over to my car to avoid incoming traffic. Ouch!
For a pretty healthy guy with a temporary condition this is really pretty funny. But designing our cities for cars has an anti-human effect that quickly becomes serious. If a pedestrian ends up in an unexpected place it could be tragic.
I once spent a day trying to walk from a hotel outside Phoenix to a shopping mall and back, less than a mile away. I had time and two really good legs, so I walked. But the obstacle course I had to surmount unfolded like a military training course! I raced across busy highways, jumped retaining walls, scurried from planter to planter to broad sidewalks that suddenly end in an overgrown lot or a sea of parking roads. I truly felt like an escaped pet in a world ruled by cars; where if they caught you loose, they'd kill you! Who built this world again?
spot until this week. I just had a minor knee surgery, shortly followed by a dentist appointment. So driving to the dentist, I did something I'd not done before. I parked in the parking space just at the bottom of a half-flight of stairs (not a real disabled spot, but just close to the stairs), and struggled up them directly into the office. When I was done there, they asked if I took the elevator up. No, I said, I took the stairs. So the nice receptionist guided me to the elevator and bid me farewell.The elevator spits me out on the ground floor, but in a lobby emptying on the other side of the building. Calculating my options, I decided walking around the small office building on the flat would be easier than taking the elevator back up and descending the stairs on the other side. So I hobble across the lot, around the building and down the sidewalk... Which then ends in a concrete wall between this lot and the one with my car. I hobble across that and a small patch of landscaping, then hop a short wall, traverse another sidewalk and enter the target lot via the driveway as a car would, then scamper over to my car to avoid incoming traffic. Ouch!
For a pretty healthy guy with a temporary condition this is really pretty funny. But designing our cities for cars has an anti-human effect that quickly becomes serious. If a pedestrian ends up in an unexpected place it could be tragic.
I once spent a day trying to walk from a hotel outside Phoenix to a shopping mall and back, less than a mile away. I had time and two really good legs, so I walked. But the obstacle course I had to surmount unfolded like a military training course! I raced across busy highways, jumped retaining walls, scurried from planter to planter to broad sidewalks that suddenly end in an overgrown lot or a sea of parking roads. I truly felt like an escaped pet in a world ruled by cars; where if they caught you loose, they'd kill you! Who built this world again?
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